Customer Lifetime Value Calculator | CLV & LTV

Quick Start Guide

  1. Enter Average Purchase Value: Input the average amount a customer spends per purchase.
  2. Enter Purchase Frequency: Input how often customers make purchases (per year).
  3. Select Mode: Choose 'Simple' to enter customer lifespan directly, or 'Advanced' to calculate CLV from a churn rate.
  4. Enter Lifespan or Churn: Input average customer lifespan (years) in Simple mode, or churn rate (%) in Advanced mode.
  5. View CLV: See the estimated total value of a customer over their lifetime.
  6. Add CAC for LTV:CAC Ratio: Optionally enter your customer acquisition cost to see the LTV:CAC ratio and acquisition budget guidance.

Understanding CLV

Two ways to model lifetime value

Simple mode multiplies average purchase value by frequency by a fixed customer lifespan you estimate yourself. Advanced mode instead uses your churn rate (the % of customers who stop buying each period) to derive an expected lifespan mathematically — 1 ÷ churn rate — which tends to be more realistic for subscription or repeat-purchase businesses where lifespan is not a fixed number you can just guess.

Why CAC and the LTV:CAC ratio matter

In Advanced mode, entering your Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) — total sales and marketing spend divided by new customers acquired — adds the LTV:CAC ratio, one of the most-watched unit-economics numbers in subscription and e-commerce businesses. A ratio of 3:1 or higher is a commonly cited healthy target, though the right number varies by business model and growth stage.

CLV is a revenue figure, not a profit figure

Both models here compute lifetime revenue, not profit — they do not subtract cost of goods sold or fulfillment costs. The one place cost is factored in directly is the CAC subtraction ("Profit per Customer" in Advanced mode), which nets CLV against acquisition cost only, not total cost to serve.

What this calculator does not cover

This models a single average customer at a point in time — it does not track cohort-by-cohort differences, changing churn over a customer's lifetime, or discount the future revenue to present value. For acquisition-cost planning specifically, see the ROI and CPC Calculators.

Features

Dual Modes: Simple mode uses lifespan, advanced mode uses churn rate for more sophisticated planning.

Value Analysis: Understand long-term customer value, identify high-value segments, and check your LTV:CAC ratio against acquisition spend.

Export Data: Export CLV calculations to JSON, CSV, or PDF.

Quick Scenarios: Load preset scenarios for retail, subscription, and SaaS business models.

Common Use Cases

Acquisition Planning: see how much you can spend to acquire a customer (CAC vs CLV) and set acquisition budgets accordingly.

Segment Analysis: compare CLV across customer segments or channels and prioritize high-CLV segments.

Retention Strategy: model how retention and frequency affect CLV, testing loyalty and subscription retention strategies.

Business Valuation: use CLV for valuation or investor-level reporting, and export or copy results for reports.

Frequently Asked Questions

CLV (also called LTV) is the total revenue a business can expect from a single customer over the entire relationship. It helps determine how much you can afford to spend acquiring and retaining each customer.
Focus on reducing churn (longer customer lifespan), increasing average order value through upsells and cross-sells, improving purchase frequency, and delivering service quality that builds loyalty.
CLV (Customer Lifetime Value) and LTV (Lifetime Value) are used interchangeably in most contexts, and this calculator treats them the same way. Both figures here are gross revenue per customer, not profit — they do not subtract cost of goods sold or fulfillment costs. In Advanced mode, entering your Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) nets CLV against acquisition cost only, giving a profit-per-customer figure, but that is not the same as a fully margin-adjusted LTV.
A common rule: CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost) should be no more than 1/3 of CLV (LTV:CAC ratio of 3:1). If your CLV is $300, spending up to $100 to acquire a customer is sustainable. Enter your CLV and current CAC to see your LTV:CAC ratio and whether acquisition spend is justified.

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